As the desire to own a 35mm
camera blossomed within popular amateur photography during the
latter 1950s, in part prompted by the more economical production
of projectable colour transparencies on 35mm instead of roll
film, Ilford Ltd must have been concerned that they did not have
their own range of such cameras.

Kodak was importing their 35mm
Retina/Retinette range from Kodak A.G. in Stuttgart, a factory
they purchased in 1931, (originally the Nagel Camerawerks).

To provide a suitable 'popularly
priced' 35mm camera, Ilford entered into an agreement with Herr
Dangelmaier of the Dacora Kamerawerk, Reutlingen, near Stuttgart,
(West) Germany. Dacora produced a simple 35mm camera, the Dacora
Dignette, but rebadged it as an Ilford Sportsman for sale in
the UK. This first (Style 1) Sportsman camera was reviewed by
Amateur Photographer magazine in their 10th July 1957 issue.

Note the exposed leverwind
and manually reset exposure counter, knurled rewind knob, low
height top cap and small direct vision viewfinder that had only
a small circular opening at the rear for the users eye.

A pdf file of the Sportsman
instruction booklet is available here, by clicking on the icon
It
is dated November 1957 (J57) but was reprinted in January 1958
(A58) with improved film loading instructions.

Both cameras in the picture
alongside (Sportsman to the left and Dacora Dignette to the right),
have the f3.5 45mm Dignar lens in 3-speed (1/25, 1/50. 1/200
+ B) X flash synchronised Vario shutters. Front cell helical
focussing is between infinity and below 3.3feet for the Sportsman
and below 1m for the Dacora (clearly the German metric focussing
scale was simply re-marked into imperial feet).

The same Dacora body was also
fitted with a Steinheil Cassar f2.8 45mm lens in Pronto and Prontor
SVS shutters, but the 1957 Sportsman equivalent (as sold in the
UK) was equipped only with the f3.5 Dignar and Vario combination.

The only other
minor variation between the Dacora Dignette and the Style 1 Sportsman
is the film type reminder dial, set within the knurled rewind
knob. The Sportsman version (on the left) is much simplified,
having just ASA black & white film speeds (25-400) and three
colour type film types ('D'aylight, 'A'rtificial and clear 'F'lash
bulb lighting balance). The Dacora also has DIN speeds and differentiates
color (sic) film into NK, NT (presumably 'N'egative film balanced
for artificial light - 'K'unstlicht, and daylight -'T'ag), and
transparency film similarly separated into types K and T.

Thanks to an e-mail from Ceri
Evans, who sent a copy of a 1957 advert from 'Good Photography'
magazine (see alongside), I have learned that the price of this
first Sportsman camera was £13.17s.4d (£13.87p) with
the leather ever ready case costing a further £2.9s.4d
(£2.47p). Thus, the camera and case cost £16.34p,
a substantial sum of money at a time when the average weekly
wage of a non-skilled worker was around £12 and explains
why I had to manage with a 7/6d (38p) VP Twin from Woolworths.

Note the small round rear viewfinder
eyepiece, which prevented the full scene being comfortably viewed
by spectacle wearers. The larger rear eyepiece of the Sportsman
Style 2 can be seen here.

In the picture showing both
the Dignette and Sportsman cameras alongside each other (see
above, left), the physical similarity might originally have been
even greater than is shown. The Sportsman (LHS camera) has the
name 'ILFORD' on a small metal plate attached to the lower left
hand front of the body, whereas the Dignette has the name 'DACORA'
painted in white, surrounded by a white oval line, directly onto
the black leatheratte. The advert alongside suggests the same
arrangement was intended for the Sportsman, with the word ILFORD
replacing DACORA.

However, it is currently
uncertain whether this version was ever marketed.

The Sportsman shown at the head of
this page, on the right hand side, has the ILFORD name in white
paint, directly on the body's leatherette; there is no accompanying
white line surround, and the word FOREIGN is embossed below (see
close up alongside - with the word ILFORD enhanced to show it
more clearly). It may be that this was the earliest version of
the 1957 Sportsman camera.

Ilford
presumably found their white painted name was gradually rubbed
off (as had affected the one shown above), since users would
have naturally held them in a way that the user's right hand
'rubbed' against the lettering. Hence, it is likely that the
small Ilford metal identification plate was used later, to avoid
this problem. Alternatively, or in addition, it provided the
ability to legibly state 'ILFORD, MADE IN WESTERN GERMANY'.

Logos photographed and made
available to me by David Muggleton.

Geoff Birch, who
posts on the Polaroid blipfoto site as GEO2B, has sent me
pictures and information about his Sportsman Style 1 that he
purchased new (and still owns) for £10.5shillings (£10.25p)
excluding the case.
He paid "ten bob" a week (10shillings=50p) to the dealer
from the 12/6d a week (62.5p) that he earned from his newspaper
'round' (delivering newspapers to houses), until he had paid
for it. His Mum purchased the camera's case for his Christmas
present, while Ray, the dealer, gave, and processed, his first
film. The dealer had a darkroom and taught Geoff processing and
that was it, Geoff was "on the path" (to a life-long
enjoyment of photography).

The dealer was 'Photorama'
of 12, Stockport Road, Ardwick, Manchester. This is viewable
on the purchase receipt that can be seen on one of the following
images.

The pictures below were all
taken and supplied to me by Geoff Birch. This complete Sportsman
is not his original. It is one he purchased relatively recently,
in "mint condition and irresistible". It is an early
version, with ILFORD in white paint on the lower left front of
the body, and the word 'Foreign' embossed into the leatherette
below the Ilford name.

This image is
of Geoff's original Sportsman, (partly) dismantled. The Sportsman
Style 1 was a simple construction, with no exposure meter, rangefinder
or facility to change lenses. A modern electronic digital would
be less easy to dismantle - and certainly less easy to re-assemble
!

Selling a range of cameras,
which could advertise the film brand, was seen as a definite
marketing advantage. lford used the term 'silent salesman' when
referring to the sticker they subsequently placed on the inside
of all their cameras, encouraging the owner to purchase Ilford's
films. The sticker visible in the Sportsman below reads "ALWAYS
USE ILFORD 35mm FILMS".

Further down is a picture of
the original Sportsman Style 1 box.

In the spring of 1958 the Chancellor
of the Exchequer halved Purchase Tax (PT; predecessor to Value
Added Tax; VAT) on photographic goods, from around (?) 50% to
25%. According to a Wallace Heaton magazine (June 1958), this
increased the photographer's purchasing power by approx 14%.
Perhaps this explains how Geoff Birch paid 'only' £10.25p
against the original 1957 retail price of £13.87p.

This reduction in PT resulted
in a rollfilm which had previously sold at 3/4d (17p) being reduced
to 2/10d (14p) and a 35mm cassette at 8/3d (41p) was reduced
to 7/- (35p). Price reductions were not just confined to cameras
and films, but also to cine cameras, camera accessories, enlargers,
flash equipment, photographic papers, cases etc (though John
Lewis tells me PT never applied to projectors, so there was a
33% assured profit mark up on them).

Credit Sales & Hire Purchase
arrangements were made easier in the 1958 budget, which further
encouraged a mini-boom in sales.

Apparently, the
'bright line' (BL) viewfinder, as featured in the 1959 Style 2 and subsequent Sportsman (and
most all 35mm viewfinder cameras), became a 'must have' and many
amateurs lost money by trading in perfectly good Style 1 cameras
for the new Style 2 BL models.